Body Of Missing Toddler Found In Creek 25 Miles From House

Authorities say they have recovered a body they think is a missing three-year-old North Carolina girl from a creek in a neighboring county.

Onslow County Hans Miller said dive teams found the girl, Mariah Wood's body around 5.30 pm Saturday, according to British newspapers and a local newspaper.

FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said in a statement the body was found in Holly Shelter Creek along Shaw Highway in Pender County creek about 25 miles from Mariah Woods' home in Jacksonville, according the Daily Mail.

The whereabouts of the three-year-old had been a mystery since Monday morning, reports The Sun.

The live-in boyfriend of the girl's mother, Kristy Woods, has been arrested. The boyfriend, Earl A. Kimrey, is accused of “removing Mariah Woods body from the scene of her death, and did conceal Mariah Woods death and body knowing that Mariah Woods died from unnatural causes, the defendant acted with deceit and intent to defraud,” according to a narrative written in the warrant for arrest of the 32-year-old, according to The Fayetteville Observer, a local newspaper.

On Saturday, Kimrey was brought before a magistrate to be charged with concealing a death, obstruction of justice, burglary, larceny, and possession of stolen property. He is now being held in county jail on a bond of $1,010,000.

“It was too late to save Mariah the moment the 911 call came in,” FBI agent Stanley Meador said of the call the girl's mother made Monday to report her missing. “The arrest warrants are public record and the records speak for themselves. We will not discuss any details related to the homicide investigation.”